Thread: Tent camping with air conditioning?

Can't help directly but consider the parks with full or limited cabins.

TPWD: Lodging

you may need to scroll around the link to see full cabins

In January we met up with the campermon family at Cooper Lake SP (South)
we were in a full cabin, she was in a limited cabin. See the post, for pictures.
Both were good places (full cabins cost more and offer more) but after seeing the limited cabins they could work for us too if needed. (We have a hybrid trailer normally)



Cooper Lake SP in a cabin January 2009

Originally Posted by xesse

i love to camp, but hate sleeping in the heat which limits me to camp during the cooler months (not june,july,aug,sept). does anyone camp with a portable air conditioner? If so what brand/model/price? I'm looking for one that is pretty less than 70lbs and is pretty quiet.

We camp in the summer with an AC unit. We just use a small window unit and my husband built a metal stand for it. We put it in the back door us our tent and as long as the tent is in the shade it stays wonderfully cool. If the tent is in the sun the AC is useless during the day.

There is no possible way my kids or husband would camp without it!

How about this?! Welcome to Outdoor Advantage Connection - Home to the AC Boot

Or, how about this?
KoolerAire 12 Volt Air Conditioner RV Boat Marine 12 Volt Air Conditioners

We also camp with an AC. I use a portable AC and I found it on sale for about $350. The window units are the cheaper way to go for sure. I don't use my portable for just camping so that is why I spent the extra $$.

Just FYI: The portable units go inside the tent with you so it does take up space. Just zip the tent door up around the vent hose (mine is about 5 inch in diameter) and there are no gaps. Most of your portables have a holding tank that collects the condensation and when those 'little' tanks are full, the unit will shut off. I had to do a little inventing so the water would drain into a larger container so I didn't have to empty the tank in the middle of the night.

Window units can be tricky if you only have one door to your tent. Each time in & out you have to step over/around the unit and your tent door won't zip very snug to the unit. Bring an extra sheet or something to fill in the gaps or look into the AC Boot mentioned earlier. It looks like it would be great!

We use a 5500-BTU window unit we got at wal-mart for under $100. We cut a square opening in the tent(dome tent) just big enough to fit the window unit in, and my wife sewed elastic around the edges of the opening so it will snug down around the A/C.

We put cheap blankets over the mesh part of the top of the tent and closed the window flaps, and the tent was comfortable during the day and almost cold at night.

I just purchased a 7,000 btu portable AC for this weekends camping trip to Garner SP--hopefully it works, it's going to be around 95 and humid! Any ideas on how to cover up the mesh on top of tents?

UPDATE:
Just got back from Garner SP--it was soo much fun! The AC worked well, but during 12pm-6pm it didn't help at all...but that was no problem since we spent the time at the river.

I once thought that camping in Old Garner was better than new Garner, but I just camped in New Garner and loved it. The sites/restrooms seem to be cleaner and the sites are not as close together as Old Garner. There also seems to always be a nice breeze in the nights/mornings in the new section.

Almost all the campground in US are air conditioned wherever it is required. hence you should not worry about it.

US has got all kind of luxuries and believe me that we cannot live without air conditioning. so the organizers even provide the AC in the tents as well which are used for camping facility. however they have to make some changes in the fixing of the tent.

Camping & RV Parks Learn Arkansas RV Parks

On a trip to Choke Canyon SP a few years back, we noticed some tenters with a big ol' A/C unit on the ground beside their tent. They had cut a hole in the material and duct tapped it around the mid-section of the unit. Worked for them.